Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: The Uncanny Curse
by XStrawberryDuckFeathersX
Summary: Aidan wakes up to find that he is not a human,but a Pokémon.But he has no time to find his feet in the strange world. He finds himself caught up in the eternal rivalry between the Zangoose and Seviper.Not only that, but rumour has it that a curse is spreading throughout the Pokémon world.The Zangoose say it is the fault of the Seviper...but who is actually responsible?
1. Chapter 1,Zangoose's Warning

_**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKéMON OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.  
Cover was drawn by me, XStrawberryDuckFeathersX.  
**__**WARNING: THIS STORY WILL POSSIBLY INCLUDE DEATH, VIOLENCE AND PROFANITIES.  
Please do not use any of my Original Characters. Thanks!  
This was inspired by Anhyo's story, 'Pokémon Mystery Dungeon-Legendary Genesis'.  
This is loosely set in the world of the 4th-Generation P.M.D. games, but there will be some differences.**_

_**There will also be GTS 'events' that I will do, where you can download some of the characters to your Pokémon Black/White/Black 2/White 2' game.**_

* * *

_The creature charged towards them..._

* * *

He sat up bolt upright. At first, he was relieved that the incident was naught but a little dream. He blinked a couple of times, but all he could see was some sort of a peculiar environment, shrouded in a blurred veil. Wherever he was, it definitely wasn't home. He blinked a few more times to clear his vision. His surroundings were comprised mostly of autumn leaves- every shade of red and gold, lying in messy piles underneath bare trees. He moved his back a little; he felt something soft and squelchy underneath him, and his nostrils picked up the most vile of scents he'd ever smelt in his life. Whilst he told himself it was mud, he knew _exactly_ what it was he was lying in. Where was he?

He stretched his arms and lazily got to his feet. However, he felt something else on his backside- something that hadn't always been there. He turned his head to notice a reddish tail, with a burning flame on the tip.

"AGH!"

Aidan dropped back into the manure in surprise, splashing it all over his body. He immediately dragged himself out of it, rolling around in the grass to clean it off. He kept seeting accidentally setting fire to the grass, so he stamped on each of the little flames to extinguish them, leaving many patches of singed grass. He decided to explore himself a little more. He placed his hand to his face; he had three claws. His mouth no longer looked like the mouth he was used to, but more like a dragon's snout. He could feel something digging into his tongue. He never remembered having teeth so razor-sharp.

_What the hell is going on?_

His eyes slid down to his feet, each of which now had three pointy claws extruding from them. He looked everywhere to find someone else, someone who would be sure to know exactly where he was. He cupped his mouth with his paws.

"Hello? Is anyone there? Do you know where I am?" Then followed his most important question. "Can you help me find my way home?"

"I can."

Aidan's head swivelled. The voice came from a large gap in the trees, and a zangoose leapt out. He wandered up to Aidan on all fours, rearing onto his hind legs once he got close enough. He extracted his claws, making the metallic sound of knives clashing.

"But, first of all, have ya seen any of them Seviper around here, Charmeleon?" the zangoose asked. "They have been causing trouble again, you see."

Aidan stood perfectly still, completely confounded.

"Zangoose don't talk," he said to himself under his breath.

"Uhh…what're ya talking about? Are ya crazy or somethin'? Of course we talk!" Zangoose chuckled.

"No,they don't! Of course zangoose don't talk! They're pokémon! Why are you talking to me? Am I hallucinating? Am I dreaming?" Having absolutely no idea what on Earth was going on, he began to panic even more. His tail flame flickered. "No! Stay away from me, okay? I don't want any-"

Zangoose powerfully punched the charmeleon into a tree. He rushed over, held him against the trunk and placed one of his claws up to his neck. Aidan felt some sort of a vibration in the side of his head from where it hit the tree bark with such force.

"Now...you're gonna tell me if you've seen any of them seviper…or else," he hissed, losing the little patience he seemed to have had in the first place.

Aidan took a deep breath. "Or what?" he asked, unaware of the fact that his words could have been taken as a threat rather than a confused utterance.

"Or I'll slice yer freakin' neck, that's what!"

As frightened as he was by the giant cat-like creature, he took a deep breath. Panicking wouldn't get him any help. "Nope. Haven't seen them. You're the first person-um, pokémon, that I've seen all day, actually."

The zangoose collapsed to the floor in fits of laughter. "Oh, come on! I know that this place is too populated for you neva to see anyone in a day. Sometimes, I wish it was quieter here too. Anyway, if ya must know, you're in Oran Forest. Me and my group are goin' around lookin' for them seviper. We're gonna slice 'em, dice 'em and eat 'em. They're always up to trouble. Be wary of 'em, ya hear?"

The zangoose grabbed Aidan by the horn on his head, and pointed to thick scars hidden amongst the red stripes on his fur.

"Them seviper did this to me, ya know. Don't let 'em do it to you, too! It's their fault that my papa is sleeping with the magikarp, you see. I ain't gonna let 'em get away with _anything_."

"Yeah, I understand what you mean…" said Aidan solemnly. "Why do you hate those seviper so much, anyway?"

"It's natural for us to hate the seviper. That's how it's been for ages. But, now we got another reason to hate 'em! They've been causing the curse, I know it! They're little troublemakers, them seviper!" His anger quickly subsided, and he lay a paw on Aidan's shoulder. "Anyway, where are ya from, buddy?"

Aidan tilted his head sideways, baffled by the zangoose's sudden mood swings. "Hoenn..."

"Hmm...I haven't heard of that before. Well,maybe I'll see ya around sometime. And remember to-"

"Watch out for the seviper?"

"Exactly," hissed the zangoose. "And get rid of that wierd delusion that you're 'human'. It ain't healthy to think you're something that you ain't."

The zangoose ran back into the gap in the trees. Despite his irritation that the creature spent more time lecturing him about seviper than he did trying to help him out, Aidan decided that the only thing he could do at this present time was have a look around and familiarise himself with his new surroundings.


	2. Chapter 2, Seviper Attacks!

Aidan roamed the forest. He spotted a plethora of trees with an abundance of oran berries amongst their few leaves. His belly began to cry out desperately for food. Oran berries had never looked tasty to him before but, on such an empty stomach, they were as almost as enticing as a bar of chocolate. He scampered over to grab some, but the only berries that lay on the floor had either been crushed by the feet of other Pokémon, or were beginning to rot, giving off a smell as foul as the manure he had woken up in. His only choice was to climb the tree. However, it looked much too tall. If he fell from such a height, he would have been sure to meet his death.

Aidan pondered, his chin resting in his paw, until he came up with an idea that had less of a chance of killing him. He grabbed both sides of the trunk and shook violently. He felt an intense power channel through him as he did so, one he had never experienced in his life. However, the tree was still too big even for a charmeleon to dislodge. All of a sudden, the seemingly obvious struck him.

He was a pokémon now; he could use pokémon attacks to knock the berries down. Aidan puffed out his chest and attempted a fire punch attack, but it left him with nothing but an aching paw. He soothed it with his other paw and growled. He continued to pummel the tree trunk with a series of powerful punches, but he wasn't rewarded for his efforts very well; only one oran berry fell from a branch. He gave up and sat down next to the tree, his tail curled in front of him to prevent him from unintentionally setting anything else alight. He bit down on the berry, and a wonderful array of flavours spread through his mouth. However, one berry in his stomach felt like nothing.

"Hey! Are you alright?"

The voice sounded very childlike and feminine. A small bundle of wool bounced over to Aidan, and greeted him with a smile and a glowing orb on its tail.

"I'm Aria! It's nice to meet you! Who are you?"

Aidan carried on clawing at the tree, not paying very much attention to the pokémon that was speaking to him. "Aidan. Nice to meet you."

"Umm…if you don't mind me asking…" The pokémon let out a chuckle. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Aidan snapped. "I'm trying to get those berries down. I haven't eaten all day."

"I can tell. You sound kinda crabby."

"Crabby?" Aidan marched up to Aria. "Listen. I've just been turned into a pokémon, almost killed by a crazy zangoose and I woke up in pokémon turd. I think I'm entitled to being crabby right now, _thanks very much_."

Aidan walked away from the little Mareep, but she simply kept following him, like a small dog following its master.

"Well, I can help you out. If you want to, you can come by my place for a bite to eat-and a wash," Aria giggled.

Aidan sighed grumpily, deciding to ignore the fact that she was making such an offer to a complete stranger. "Alright. Thanks."

* * *

Once they arrived at Aria's abode, Aidan was nothing short of shocked. She lived in a protruding rock looking over a beach. It bore an unbelievable resemblance to a sharpedo.

"Here you go! Some more oran berries should make you feel a little better," Aria chirped, hopping over to the charmeleon.

He gladly took the berries that were curled in Aria's tail and devoured them.

"Are you sure you were a human? It sounds a little odd for a human to just suddenly turn into a pokémon."

"Yep, I'm sure, but I can't really recall much about it. All I remember is this one person...a man."

"Really?" Aria asked curiously. "What about him?"

"I just remember seeing him. Well, him and another pokémon, but I can't quite remember which one. I think it might have been... . Fluffy and four-legged. Must've been an Arcanine..."

* * *

Aria bounced along the pavement as Aidan took in his surroundings; the guild looked awfully huge as it loomed above them both.

"That's for explorers! I don't want to be an explorer,though...I'd be more afraid of the outlaws than they were of me!"

They headed north down a long path. Aidan found it somewhat amusing how well Aria knew her way around the area compared to him, but he guessed that it was understandable. He didn't expect the pokémon world to be full of buildings and to even have its own town. He was expecting nothing but forests and fields all over the place.

"Look!"

Aria tapped Aidan's leg and he looked to his side; a beautiful beach with glittering sand greeted him. The gentle swish of the waves seemed to put him at ease a little.

Aria hopped over to the shore and watched over the sea, as the krabby were called out by the sunset. They lined up and sprayed bubbles from their pincers.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

"The bubbles, yeah. The krabby…not so much," Aidan replied, washing himself with seawater, carefully avoiding letting it touch his tail flame.

"Hey! You!"

Aidan heard a serpentine voice.

"What were you doing talking to that zangoose? What did he say to you?" said the pokémon, prolonging its Ss.

"Look, I don't want any trouble-"

"SHUSH!"

The seviper held its tail blade a hair's breadth away from Aidan's throat.

"Tell me what he told you."

Aidan decided not to land the zangoose in trouble. "He just showed me the way."

"LIES!"

"If you don't believe me, then...that's your problem," Aidan replied, beginning to lose his patience.

"Tell me the truth, or I'll crush you!"

Aidan remained silent, and the snake pounced for him. It coiled around his chest, forcing the air from the lizard's lungs. He tugged and tugged at the serpent, but its tenacious grip didn't seem to be weakening at all.

"Get him, Aidan, or he'll kill you!"

" I can't..." Aidan was too afraid to fight back at first. It would have been his first battle as a pokémon.

The seviper ignored his reluctance to fight back and sliced his arm with his tail blade. He was knocked to the sand, and blood trickled between the little crystals of sand.

"Aidan! He'll kill you! _Just fight back_!"

Aidan dug his claws into the snake's body, and it loosened its grip enough for Aidan to escape being crushed.

_Aria's right. If we let him win, he'll kill us both!_

Aidan grabbed the snake by the end of its tail and attempted to fling it into the water, but it didn't go very far, landing head-first in the sand. Seviper leapt towards the charmeleon, who subconsciously retaliated by flailing his fists. He performed a powerful, yet unintended attack, and sent the seviper flying across the horizon.

"How…how did I just do that?"

"Pokémon are stronger than you might think," Aria replied. "You'll probably have to get used to that strength; you never know when you might forget that you have it. And you don't want that to happen."

Aidan stood proudly over the sea. "Like that zangoose said, those seviper are trou-"

"Of course a zangoose would say something bad about seviper. They hate each other!" Aria exclaimed. "You're new to this world, and I'm sure either of the two would use your lack of knowledge about their feud to their advantages."

"Anyway, it's getting late. Maybe we should go and get some sleep now."


	3. Chapter 3, Getting Used To It

Aria slept soundly, warmed by the soothing heat of Aidan's tail. However, he wasn't so content. He tossed and turned, struggling to get comfortable; he could barely sleep knowing he was so far away from home. He stared into the moon. It gently lit the beach below, making the sand sparkle like the stars that hung high in the night skies. He wondered what his family were probably doing now; he imagined that his mother would be yelling frantically down the phone to Hoenn's police force, desperate for them to return her son. He imagined the little sister he'd always dreaded to be searching for him around the house, hoping he would help her to train her minun.

"Aidan…" Aria yawned, stretching her stubby front legs, "are you still awake?"

"Yeah."

Aria wandered over to him and tapped his forehead.

"You must really miss your family, huh?"

Aidan closed his eyes for a second. "Yeah, I do..."

"It'll be okay," Aria said happily. "You can stick with me. I'll take care of you! Hey, maybe we can stay up all night? I've got loads of cool stuff to tell you!"

"Okay, then," the charmeleon chuckled, cracking a tiny smile.

Aria nestled next to his tail flame and gazed up into the stars.

"Y' know, I can't wait until I evolve. I doubt I'll ever be strong enough, but I dream of being an ampharos like my mum one day…"

Aidan folded his arms and leaned his head in them, listening to the mareep's wish.

* * *

When the morning came, Aidan was blinded by a bright light; he knew that Aria's stories would bore him into slumber eventually.

"Good morning, sleepy-head!" she shouted, wagging her glowing tail and jumping on his back.

Aidan stretched and rubbed his eyes, hoping that it was just a dream. Sadly, it was no dream. He was still in the exact same place.

"I wanna take you to see my family!"

Aidan raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? They'll think I'm weird once I tell them I'm human!"

"Don't be silly!" Aria chortled. "You'll be fine! Come on, let's go!"

Without another word, she curled her tail around his foot and bounded away, dragging Aidan painfully across the floor. As they dashed through thick forests, Aidan accidentally set fire to a few trees with his tail.

"Slow down! I don't wanna start a bloody forest fire!"

"Hey! Look over there!"

Aria came to an abrupt halt and let go of Aidan's leg, sending him rolling across the grass. He spat the grass out of his mouth, rubbing the horrid taste off of his tongue. Aria lived inside of a hollow area dug out of a cheri berry tree of an amazingly wide girth- a home that looked about as comfortable as the manure Aidan woke up in. He rubbed his arm and looked into the ground, kicking the soil. "Do I _really_ have to meet your family?"

"It'll be fun," Aria replied, pulling him by her tail into the house. "Just try not to burn my home down, okay?"

Aidan took a deep breath. As soon as he stepped foot into the home, he was pushed to the wall by a yellow giraffe-like creature.

"Who is this, Aria?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at the charmeleon.

"He's a human. He got turned into a Charmeleon. I was only trying to help him out, Mum."

The Ampharos scowled at him. "That's the worst lie I've ever heard."

"I'm not lying."

"Mum, please..."

The Ampharos let go of him. "Aria, what did I tell you about talking to strangers?"

"Sorry, miss, but I promise I'm not lying to you, and I don't wanna hurt-"

"Get out!"

Aidan quickly darted out of the tree as the ampharos's orbs lit up. She fired a colourful signal beam from the gem on her forehead. Luckily, Aidan had ducked just in time to avoid it. He'd been forced to leave the only friend he had-or, possibly, the only friend he'd ever make.

Aidan hit himself in the head. _Damn__it! You're so stupid! Why didn't you just drop the 'human' part? Then she wouldn't have thought you were some crazy kid who was going to kill her daughter!_

Aidan brushed the mud from his knees, and continued his aimless trek.


	4. Chapter 4,A Disgruntled Granbull

Aidan wandered through a dark, craggy mountainous region. The skies became dull and grey. Aidan could barely see his surroundings thanks to the heavy smog. His only source of light was that of his own tail flame. He stayed on-guard, coming to a halt with every footstep he heard. He'd almost gotten himself into enough fights for a day or two; he didn't need to get into any more. How he was going to make this world believe that he was truly human was a mystery.

The next day, he spent most of his time scavenging, clawing through piles of mud and dust, in the hopes of finding a berry or some seeds. More often than not, Aidan never found anything. He took the one seed he'd found all day and chewed gently on it, attempting to make it last as long as possible, but he soon found that it was impossible to do such a thing with such a small piece of food. He took a gander at the area around him, but the mist had grown so thick that it was almost impossible to do so. He curled up in the middle of a circle of rocks and gently waved his tail to keep himself warm. He had no idea how far away Aria was from him now; the only friend he currently had could have been miles away from him at this point. He browsed the area for any sign of what may have been her tail light, but all he could see was the mountains in the horizon.

"Who's there?"

Aidan's head spun round quickly, but all he saw was a rock. As we plodded on further, the noises seemed to become louder and louder, commanding Aidan's full attention every time.

_It's all in your head. Stop panicking._

He concentrated on the path ahead of him, focusing on every tiny stone that lead the way.

"Gotcha!"

Aidan was tackled to the side. A purple, canine beast held its mouth agape. Aidan couldn't help but flinch at the size of its huge jaws.

_Granbull!_

"I don't want any trouble!" He squealed, lacking the sense of bravado he had in his previous fight. Granbull slid its tongue along the charmeleon's face as he screamed for help. Aidan twitched with fear.

"Don't blame me, blame the circle of life! Now, prepare to be devoured!"

As the granbull's mouth closed around his head, Aidan forced his jaws apart.

"I'd had just about enough of this pokémon bullshit!" Aidan struggled to push the granbull's mouth away for dear life.

He finally managed to escape the clutches of granbull's fangs, but he didn't manage to escape the shattering pain of a headbutt attack. Aidan crashed into a rock and then dropped into the mud.

"You're useless. Aren't charmeleon supposed to be strong?"

"I ain't a charmeleon!" Aidan whined. "I'm a human who woke up in a charmeleon's body!"

"That's the dumbest lie I've ever heard!"

Aidan looked across the horizon when he recognised a mareep's cry; he saw a small yellow light amongst the fog.

"It's that darn mareep again, isn't it?" growled the granbull.

"Again?"

"Yeah. She keeps stealing my berries and seeds all of the time. I've always let her off, since she's small…but I think it's about time that changed!" the granbull roared, charging towards the light.

Aidan's eyes bulged.

_Aria? Is he going to kill her?_

Aidan froze for a second; an idea struck him. If he rescued Aria, her mother may have realised that his intentions were good. Then, maybe she would let him stay at their home.


	5. Chapter 5,A Mother's Love

Aidan lowered onto all fours and dashed after Granbull, repeating lines in his head to boost his morale.

_Just do your best. The more you fight, the more you'll get used to this body. You're not a wimpy human anymore. You can do your _own_ battling. You're a charmeleon now; you can kick ass!_

Aidan exhaled a stream of orange flames that licked the feet of the granbull and stopped him in his tracks.

"Don't touch her!" he bellowed, his voice rolling down the mountains.

He slashed at the granbull's chest, blood spilling from the wounds. It whimpered in pain and kicked Aidan off of him.

"Did you think you could shake me off that easily?"

The charmeleon managed to heave himself to his feet, and spat lavender flames from his mouth in dragon-like rage. Granbull ducked and tackled him back to the rough ground.

_That move isn't as weak as I thought…_

Granbull crunched his arm in his jaws, making him scream.

"Leave him alone!"

Aidan twisted his head around to see Aria hurtling towards them. She let loose a thundershock attack which accidentally shocked the both of them. Aidan rolled out of the granbull's loosened grip.

"Aria, don't! He'll kill you!"

Aria's fluffy coat swelled and her wool burst into fluffy shrapnel that covered the Granbull. As he forced his way through the wool as if it were a ball pit, Aria mouthed to Aidan, 'Now's your time!'

He had to think quickly.

_What other moves do charmeleon learn?_

Aidan charged through the wall and opened his mouth, biting down on granbull's arm with fangs cloaked in fire. As fiery rage struck him, the charmeleon tossed him out of the wool and watched him bounce across the craggy floor, leaving one of its prominent bottom fangs behind.

"Don't mess with someone smarter than you, Granbull," Aidan said darkly, now wielding the purple fang. "That's what get little pokémon killed."

"Little? Boy, I'm much stronger than you are."

Aria tackled the granbull, only to be shoved to the ground. As much as she squealed and squirmed, she couldn't escape the tenacious paws of the giant dog.

"Get off of her!" Aidan roared, his tail flame burning bright. "You're asking for another fire fang attack!"

Granbull pushed his paw down harder on the little sheep's neck. All of a sudden, a beam of red and blue light struck the dog.

"Don't you touch my daughter!"

The mother ampharos hurried to the scene and reared onto her hind legs. As soon as she saw the orange lizard from earlier, lying fatigued on the floor from another Headbutt attack from the granbull, her beady eyes narrowed. "Is this something to do with you, Charmeleon?"

"No, Mum! He's trying to help me out!"

Aidan's tail fire became dim. "Just hear me out, alright? I'm trying to-"

Granbull chomped on him again, leaving him badly bruised and covered in blood.

"I mean it! Don't you mess with my daughter, Granbull!"

She thumped him with a shocking thunder punch and continued her attack with Power Gem, searing him with a ray of scarlet light. She landed on her feet as Granbull landed on its face. She snatched the severed fang from Aidan's paw and held it close to the granbull's throat.

"Mum, no!"

The mother ampharos lifted the fang and thrust it through the granbull's neck. Blood flowed like a waterfall from the wound. Very soon, the granbull lay completely still.

Aidan gasped, staring at the dead granbull. "I can't believe you just did that..." He slumped to the ground.

"It tried to kill my daughter! What did you expect me to do?"

Aria slowly approached Aidan, who lay out cold on the dusty ground.

"Mum…"

The ampharos took a deep breath and hugged her fluffy daughter. "Yes, honey?"

"Can we take Aidan home with us? He's not mean, I promise. He tried to protect me."

The mother glanced at the unconscious lizard, whose tail flame was very small.

"Okay, then," she replied reluctantly, gently scooping him up in her arms. "Let's take him home."


	6. Chapter 6 ,A Steady Recovery

Ampharos lay Aidan on a bed of straw, and he rolled limply into a comfortable spot on the bed. Aria crushed oran berries with her tiny feet in order to make a remedial juice for him when, maybe even if, he awoke.

"How is he, Mum?" Aria asked curiously, hopping over.

"His tail seems to be a little brighter, but don't worry. I'm sure he will be fine," the ampharos replied.

"Thanks for saving me, Mum."

Aria embraced her mother's foot, and she patted her gently on the head.

"It's fine. It's the least a mother could do. So…is it true he's originally human, do you think?"

Aria looked down at the charmeleon as he lay quietly. "I don't really know," Aria replied, discharging electricity from her fluffy coat and placing the shed wool on Aidan's straw bed to make it more comfortable.

* * *

_The man fought the creature, protecting the little boy with his life. Every snap of its jaws, every slash of its claws, failed to deter him from taking it down._

"_No! Don't! You'll get hurt!"_

"_And if I don't fight this thing off, so will you!" The man roared, punching and kicking the furry pokémon._

* * *

Aria's eyes slid to Aidan, who looked deeply surprised.

"Is there something wrong?"

The charmeleon laid his head in his paws. "I'm alright…" he whispered, lying back down in the straw and wool. He gathered some of the wool pieces and snuggled his head into them.

"I made you some oran berry juice."

"I'm fine."

"But-"

"I'm fine," Aidan protested, but Aria could tell by his voice that he was anything _but_ fine. She dabbed Aidan's wounds with wool, pausing every time he winced. A purple bruise surrounded his right eye. The dents left from granbull's bite were deep and bloody.

"I don't know how you lot can take so much damage…"

"You'll get used to it soon, don't worry! Besides, you're a charmeleon. They're pretty powerful. I'm just a little mareep! I don't know when I'll ever evolve," Aria groaned.

Aidan drank the berry juice, feeling a little more refreshed with every sip. "It takes time, I suppose."

He could feel his eyelids drooping.

"You go get some rest, okay? I'm going out to see my friends for a while. Mum will take care of you, don't worry!"

The Mareep tapped Aidan's solid head with her front leg.

"Sweet dreams!"


	7. Chapter 7,What Happened to Bulbasaur?

"Aidan! Wake up!" Aria screamed, leaping on him again, although her jumps seemed very frantic.

"What is it?" he snapped. He heard the worried voices of other pokémon coming from outside. "What's going on?"

He jumped up rushed outside, shoving through hoards of curious pokémon, receiving numerous mumbles referring to his lack of manners. Once he got to the front of the crowd, he clearly heard the loud roaring of a crying mother venusaur.

"My baby! What's wrong with him?" she wailed noisily.

A small bulbasaur lay as still as a stone, with its eyes wide open and lifeless.

"You there, with the fiery tail! Could you lend a hand and warm him up a little?" snivelled the venusaur.

Aidan carefully sat near the bulbasaur and waved his tail slowly side to side, like the pendulum of a grandfather clock.

"What the hell happened here?"

"I know exactly what happened!"

The crowd made way for the cat-like creature as he walked unflinchingly through them on all fours.

"It's them seviper."

_Oh, Christ. Not you again,_ Aidan thought to himself.

"They've been spreadin' this around, I tell ya! The curse is all their fault."

"Well, that sounds awfully biased coming from a zangoose, doesn't it?" replied a swellow in the back of the crowd, waving her wings in anger.

"You just gotta trust me on this! Them seviper have been poisoning the little minds of the little pokémon around the area. Not too long ago, they killed a ton of riolu at their home in Crystal Cave! Look at those cowards…gotta hide in a freakin' cave…can't face the crap they get for their evil deeds," Zangoose explained. He looked at Aidan for a second, as if he recognised his face. "Didn't we meet not too long ago, Charmeleon?"

"Yeah, we did. And I met a seviper not too long ago." Aidan felt reluctant to continue. "You're right. They're assholes. They tried to attack me and my friend, so I threw him into the sea," Aidan replied, crossing his arms as if he had accomplished an amazing feat.

The surrounding crowd had mixed reactions to his actions; some clapped. Others whispered to each other about how stupid he was attempting to fight a poison-type with a deadly bladed tail. Others were too busy worrying about the little bulbasaur.

"I can't trust seviper's largest enemy with that information. Sorry," mumbled a Medicham nearby.

"Fine! But just you wait...The seviper will take down the lot of ya! And you there, Charmeleon..." He made his way over to Aidan, lifting his head with his claw, "I'll be watchin' your back if you even decide to go for them seviper."

The zangoose fled in the direction of the forests. Aidan looked down at the bulbasaur, who still remained inanimate.


	8. Chapter 8, I Just Want To Go Home

Once the crowd had dispersed, Aidan and Aria made their way to Apple Woods to gather some food. Aria bounced around head-butting the trees to knock the apples down, and watched with joy as the juicy red orbs fell softly into her wool. However, her charmeleon companion wasn't so eager. He sat against the tree staring into the grass, clawing into the surrounding soil.

"What's troubling you? " Aria asked. She offered him an apple, but he held up his paw in refusal.

"What d'you think?"

"There's no need to snap." Aria slammed her rear end into the grass and nibbled on an apple, spitting out the seeds.

"I just want to go home, okay? Can you blame me?"

"But why? You don't even remember what it was like back there."

"That doesn't matter. It was probably better there than it is here."

"And just how are you actually going to get back?"

Aidan was silenced by her comment.

"Alright, how about I make you a deal, Aidan? If you help me find out who caused the curse, then I'll help you get back to the human world. Is that a deal?"

Aidan had to think long and hard about it. It may have meant getting badly injured, possibly even getting killed. Then again, he needed Aria. He needed her so that he had somewhere to stay. Without her, he had an even larger chance of losing his life.

"Alright. You've got yourself a deal, Aria."

He shook the tiny front leg of the little sheep.

"So…do you think we should head towards Crystal Cave? I actually have a good feeling that seviper could be spreading the curse. You see, I don't think it's a curse at all. I think it's a disease. I think it's something in seviper's venom!"

"Hmm…yeah, it could be from seviper's venom," Aidan agreed, seeming rather confused and then shrugging. "I don't really know much about bulbasaur or seviper, to be honest."

"I'm not sure if zangoose is telling the truth…but it's worth a try. Let's go to the Crystal Cave!"

"Hey! Not so fast!"

A white and red bundle of fur hurried over to them. He leaned on his knees, taking deep breaths. " I'll...I'll catch you guys up. You ain't gonna have no problems with the seviper. Just murder every last one of 'em. Then they can't curse no-one."

Aidan's head turned to the direction of the cave, and he grinned. "Yeah. Let's go and kick some ass, Aria."

Aria followed behind Aidan, happily hopping along. He was astonished by her lack of fear about coming face-to-face with a deadly poisonous snake.


	9. Chapter 9, Crystal Cave Calamity

_"Come on, lad! We've got work to do," the man said, gesturing the boy to follow him. "I know you're a bit sad about your poochyena, but that's life, and life has to come to an end sometime. Whilst we're here, I can have a look around outside."_

_The boy wiped his teary eyes, ambled over to him and exited the room. The fresh breeze gave them a cool, refreshed feeling. As the man searched every nook and cranny for something, he peered over the edge of the cliff. From Mount Pyre, he looked over the vast seas of Route 122, its rippling surface glistening under the glow of the afternoon sun. He watched the heads of tentacool bob up and down in the water, their red crystal-like eyes glowing brightly._

_"What are you looking for?" asked the boy._

_"Top-quality fur, my boy!"_

_"No! That's mean! Don't do that! How would you like it if they skinned you?"_

_"I'd like to see them try," the man replied gruffly. "Besides, it's not like pokémon battling is any less cruel, is it, now?"_

_He quickly leapt to one side; he heard rustling from a cave-like area that looked as if it had been bored into the rock face by another pokémon. "Stay still," he whispered, approaching the source of the rustling with his Stanley knife held firmly in hand._

* * *

Aidan strolled across the vast plains. He had no idea how he was supposed to recall any more of his memories of his human self, or even if he was going to recall anything else from it at all. His mind was filled with little pieces of some kind of vague mental puzzle, desperately waiting to be fitted together. His odd dreams remained on his mind. He couldn't keep his emotions bottled up forever.

"Aria, can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure thing!" she replied. "What's up?"

Aidan slowed his pace. "I've been having weird dreams lately."

"Really? What about?"

"It's about a man attacking a pokémon, but it's a pretty vague pokémon. I can't tell what species it is, but it's been recurring for a few nights now."

"That's odd."

_Well, that was awfully helpful, _Aidan thought to himself.

Despite his success in a previous battle with the serpent-like pokémon, Aidan was still panicking about the seviper. They had fangs laced with deadly poison; one bite could have meant his death, and he still wouldn't have found any clues to his reasons for ending up in the Pokémon world. Then again, the first thing he could do whilst he was there was explore the area.

* * *

When they arrived at Crystal Cave, they were greeted by glistening gems that protruded from the ground. Aria gazed into her reflection, which appeared on each face of the crystal.

"It's like a hall of mirrors, isn't it?" Aidan said, in awe at the sight; he had never seen such a beautiful cave system in his entire life.

Aria wandered unflinchingly into the cave, with Aidan straggling behind. She kept a watchful eye on her surroundings, and he listened out for any signs of the seviper. However, they found nothing except for gem shards. Despite their beauty and apparent value, they weren't important for now. Aidan spent most of his time peeling the sleeping wormadam he'd accidentally stepped on from his feet.

"I don't think we're gonna find anything, Aria."

"Why don't we split up?"

Aidan flinched. "I'm not going through here on my own! Don't you care about our safety?"

"I can hold my own, Aidan. Stop being so worried!"

"Alright, alright. Fine. Just call my name, or make your tail glow or something when you've found the seviper, okay? Give me some sort of a signal."

Aria saluted him and bounced off deep into the caves. The crystals around him shone in a reddish colour as they reflected his tail flame. Without Aria's assistance, however, he had no idea how he was going to survive a battle, should he get into one. He felt as if his only choice was to retaliate. He was no longer human; he didn't need to sort out problems with words anymore. There were no excuses for softness in the Pokémon world; those who could not fight simply became the meal of a vicious predator. It was either eat, or be eaten.

_I have no choice._

He remembered how he would ponder about the lives of animals, and the way that they would have to spend most of their days endeavouring to survive. Whether it was gathering food or fending off potential threats, it was all just a fight to survive. He recalled how he noticed the growing similarity in his own species.

_Here goes._

Aidan inhaled deeply. As the dusty cave air filled his nose, he could feel warmth in his chest. He felt as if his worries had melted away…

He let out a violent sneeze. Tiny flames spurted from his nostrils, and the noise reverberated off of the crystals. He froze.

Glowing eyes appeared from the shadows, like car lights on a dark night. Vile hisses could be heard from every corner of the room.

"So… you've been talking with the zangoose, I hear…"

A large snake slithered into the light. She was oddly-coloured for her species, and battle scars covered her scaly body. She moved up to Aidan until she was at eye level with him, then hissed in his face. Aidan felt a chill in his heart at the sight of the Pokémon's flickering forked tongue.

"What were you discussing?"

"Nothing importa_-"_

The snake coiled tightly around Aidan's body, wrapping him up like a mummy in bandages. She moved the blade of her tail deadly close to the lizard's throat.

"_Tell me."_


	10. Chapter 10, Not Saying A Word

"I'm not saying anything!" Aidan protested, thrashing about in the seviper's tenacious coil.

"I know that you and the zangoose are working together, hm?"

"No, we're not, actually. I wanna ask you why you've been cursing young pokémon! What's wrong with you?"

The seviper's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about. The bulbasaur? The one who was struck by the curse? I don't think it's a curse at all. I think it's poison. a SEVIPER'S poison! "

The seviper's eyes lit up in shock. She tilted her head to one side confoundedly. "What bulbasaur?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Aidan snapped. "Stop acting like you don't!"

"Are these the words of those pesky zangoose?"

Aidan fell silent, fresh out of things to reply with. If he continued to argue, he'd never escape the grip of the Seviper.

"I knew it! You and those zangoose are in affiliation. Tell me all that he told you! NOW!"

Seviper held its mouth agape. Aidan stared down its throat; it almost seemed as if it went on forever, and he didn't want to end up in the pokémon's belly. He unleashed the anger that had been pooling in the pit of his chest for as long as he had been a charmeleon.

A primal roar escaped from Aidan's throat, shocking the seviper and its cronies into inanimateness. It echoed off of the cave walls. The pokémon's throat was sore shortly after, but Aidan felt an awesome, animal-esque power that he'd never properly felt before- only briefly during the last battle with the granbull. He crunched down on the snake's body and it loosened its coil. He growled intimidatingly and slashed at the shiny seviper with draconic claws. As the leader lay on the floor momentarily, Aidan approached her on all fours.

"I'm not saying a word!"

* * *

**Author Note: _Aidan has been uploaded onto the GTS!_ :D**

**At least, he was. He is now owned by 'George' (I.D. 09053) who gave me a Level 5 Purrloin called 'Please' in return. Thanks, 'George'!**


	11. Chapter 11, Serpent Attack!

Aidan pounced on the snake, biting into its scaly flesh.

"Get him!" shouted the shiny seviper in pain.

The rest of the seviper slithered after the lizard, who deterred them by waving his tail fire around frantically. With red-hot fangs, Aidan bit once again into the body of the snake, but she attacked him with a swift slice from her tail. Aidan was whacked into the crystal and dropped into the rubble, only to receive a painful crunch attack.

"Is that all you lot have got?!"

In his temporary delusion of grandeur, he raised his claws, stomped his foot and spewed blue flames from his mouth. One of the accompanying seviper leapt into the air and body-slammed the charmeleon.

"Get off of me!" Aidan roared, clawing viciously at the snakes. He took a couple of heavy breaths, making the most of the little downtime the battle would give him. Once he calmed down a little, his brain finally processed the sheer amount of Seviper heading his way and the fact that Aria was nowhere to be seen to assist him.

_Did the Seviper get her?_

His attacks were fueled by a concoction of rage and panic. Aidan crunched on the leader's tail and then swung it around to hit two of the other snakes in the face. He grabbed the end of the tail and used it to slice at the other seviper who dared to confront him. Never in his human life would he have experienced such exhilarating strength.

"Aidan!"

He froze at the soothing sound of her high voice. His head slowly turned from the battle to the little wooly creature. Aria bounced into the room, but screamed at the sight of the serpents. For the first time in the parts of his life that he could recall, Aidan finally felt enough courage to stand up for his friend. This time, he had claws and fangs to fight back with, should anyone get in his way.

"Don't you dare attack her!" he yelled. He charged through the crowd of snakes and dived in front of the little sheep, whose legs were shaking. "Aria! Use your thundershock attack!"

Trembling, Aria channelled electricity through her wool and fired it at the incoming snakes, as Aidan vented with his dragon rage attack. The combination of electricity and draconic energy seemed to be fighting them off somewhat well.

"I can't keep them away forever, you know!" Aria wailed.

The leader pounced out of nowhere. Time seemed to slow down for Aria, as she visualised her journey into the seviper's stomach and her gruesome death in its stomach shrieked.

However, she now had something else to scream about...

* * *

**Author Note: Aria was received by FIGI(50876). Thanks, FIGI! **


	12. Chapter 12, The Hallucinatory Being

Aidan had moved into the line of its planned attack.

Aria was paralysed with fear. Seviper's fangs penetrated his shoulder, spurting lava- blood in every direction. Aidan grimaced and roared to endure the agonising pain. Aria fought off the seviper by creating a wall of electrified wool with her cotton spore technique. She fired countless little bolts of electricity at the leader seviper. Soon, she found herself tied between creating walls of her own wool and throwing thunderbolts at the shiny seviper. Eventually, she cracked under the pressure and sat there, screaming. With the last ounce of strength in his body, Aidan spat vicious flames at the seviper and its leader, frightening them. He did whatever he could to repel them; whether it was his roars, his tail flame or his dragon rage attack, he retaliated until the shiny seviper announced that they would retreat.

"My job here is done. He'll die very soon, and you'll be all alone in this cave so we can come for you later…I rarely ever have to eat, so you'll be a satisfying meal for three months…"

The shiny leader pokémon gazed creepily into Aria's frightened little eyes before leaving. She huddled in her wool and wept to herself. She was scared. She was practically alone.

"Hey…you...over there…"

Aria peered down at Aidan, whose arm wept blood and a strange-coloured viscous substance. He seemed to be reaching outwards towards the wall, much to Aria's confusion.

"Help!" The little pokémon cried out desperately. "Someone help us! My friend is dying!"

Aria shed some wool and placed it on the wound to attempt to soak up the blood and gunk. Aidan's tail fire was slowly dying out.

* * *

_Colours of every hue faded in and out of his vision. He felt as if he were floating in nothingness. Strangely, the memory of the area seemed somewhat familiar. So did the figure that appeared in front of him. It was a quadrupedal creature with beautiful fur. Its red eyes probed into his._

"_This is your _own_ fault, Aidan Pyreman."_

_He __screamed__, yet no sound left his lips.__ He felt traumatised, yet no traumatising memories __would appear to him. They were __deeply __repressed, buried __in the __depths __of his thoughts.__ He scrambled and scrambled, yet he still remained in this strange, colourful nothingness…_


	13. Chapter 13, Saved By the Boulder

"Help! Someone, please help!"

Aria bounced around the cave room, crying out desperate pleas.

"Did you need something, little girl?"

A large, boulder-like Pokémon rolled over to her, and her attention turned to the unconscious charmeleon.

"Oh, sweetie…is your friend hurt?"

Aria pawed at the Pokémon's leg. "Please help me, miss! PLEASE!"

Aria had pulled off so much of her fur to coat Aidan's wound that she was almost bare. "Are you a graveler?"

"Indeed, I am."

She heaved the Charmeleon into her upper pair of arms, and picked up Aria in the other.

"I'll get you out of here, little pokémon. Don't you panic."

Slowly, but carefully, the graveler made her way out of the crystal labyrinth.

* * *

"What place is this for a little mareep to be, anyway? You know how dangerous it is, what with all those Seviper about."

Aria gathered some leaves and some of her shed wool to create a makeshift pillow, and lay Aidan's head gently on it.

"Me and my friend were going to stop them. They laid the curse on my friend!" Aria growled; the graveler found it to be cute rather than intimidating.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sure they couldn't do such a thing," she replied. "I've heard a lot about that curse, but I have no idea what could've caused it."

"Urrgghh…"

Aidan stirred a little, clawing at thin air.

"Aidan! You're okay!"

"Uhhh...I'm…what?"

Aria's voice was incredibly muffled, and virtually indecipherable. Aidan had no idea how he'd managed to survive such a brutal attack.

"You're alright!"

"If that's what you wanna call it…"

Aidan rolled onto his side and stared at the little sheep, then gazed weakly into the wool she had used for his pillow. He couldn't help but crack a small, reptilian smile. All of a sudden, he felt terrible for only befriending Aria to have somewhere to stay. She wasn't just his token to free accommodation; she was his friend. His loyal companion. If it weren't for her, he would have died a long time ago.

Aria reflected on the battle, and how it was all thanks to her new charmeleon friend that she was still alive. However, something struck her as odd.

"Don't you think the zangoose would have helped us out, Aidan? I never saw any in the cave after the seviper."

Aidan's eyes bulged wildly, and his tail fire bloomed.

_Zangoose!_


	14. Chapter 14, That Bastard

His tail fire blazed. He rose onto unsteady feet.

"That _bastard_!" he groaned, slouching. "He tells me that the seviper are causing the curse, and then doesn't even bother to do anything about it!"

"Calm down, okay? You're in no condition to-"

"No!" He roared feebly, frightening the little sheep. "That zangoose is a lying asshole! If he would've turned up, like he said he would, I wouldn't be in this condition!" He slumped forward onto one foot, his eyelids heavy. "I'll kill him…I'll kill him!"

"NO!" Aria squealed. "You're staying here! I don't want you getting hurt again!"

"I'm going-"

"YOU'RE STAYING RIGHT HERE!"

Aidan was shocked stiff by the pokémon's screech. He collapsed limply into a pile of leaves, struggling to breathe. He noticed the odd figure from his dream in the distance again, as a shadow darting through a distant field.

"Aria…"

"Aidan, don't strain yourself! You're not helping yourself at all!" Aria seemed to be losing her patience. "I doubt they'll help much…but I'll go and find some Pecha berries for him. I'll have to do what I can even if it isn't particularly effective...wait here with him, Graveler."

The graveler did as instructed. She was about to warn Aria of the dangers of venturing off on her own, but she thought that Aria probably would have been much too headstrong to listen to her.

However, gathering pecha berries wasn't all that Aria had up her sleeve. She growled her herself.

_Those zangoose harmed my friend!_

* * *

**The shiny seviper leader, Novacella, is now owned by George (09053.) Wow, George, you even gave me the item I asked for! Thank you ever so much for reading the fic and joining in the fun! I hope you have fun with your new shiny seviper. (Say, weren't you the one who took Aidan aswell?)**


	15. Chapter 15, Are You Scared?

He banged an iron fist on the table, smashing it in half. Bits of wood splintered on the floor. He crunched on a huge apple and tossed the core out of the window for the pidgey.

"Who the fuck took my little girl?" he roared, spitting apple pieces all over the floor.

The ampharos stared dejectedly into the floor. "I'm not sure, Bob… I heard the zangoose say that seviper were cursing pokémon…so maybe she was cursed by them. But I think it may have been a charmeleon that-"

"Charmeleon?" he interrupted. "What charmeleon? What're you talking about, Mary?"

"Aria brought home a friend the other day… he told her that he used to be a human. I'm not sure if I believe that or not, but my little Aria believed him. She must've gone off with him."

"That does it!" Bob took another great bite into his apple. He raised his head, accidentally making a hole in the ceiling with his mighty metal horns. "I'm going out to look for any seviper or charmeleon and, when I find 'em, I'll snap 'em in half with an Iron Tail! They can't hold a litwick to my power! "

Bob gave Mary a crushing hug, and stomped out of the house, knocking all of Mary's dinner to the floor. Mary got down on all fours and hurried after him.

"Bob,wait one second!"

"What's the deal? We've got to hurry and find-"

"Calm down."

Mary pecked Bob on his cold, iron cheek.

"You go to the forests and have a look around there. I'l have a look around Crystal Cave. If the seviper cursed her, then she'll probably still be there. I'll keep my eyes peeled for that pesky charmeleon."

* * *

The muggy winds wailed through the barren wastelands. Vicious dragon-type pokémon roared and beat their wings, soaring through the gloomy skies. Aria made her way back to Oran Forest. The sharp fangs and stabbing claws of the zangoose she would be soon to meet failed to perturb her. She sought revenge. She completely ignored the terrifying winds and the incoming clouds of dusty fog. Eventually, she felt so full of energy that she dashed towards the speck of green in the distance. Her anger urged her to keep moving, even though her tiny legs couldn't take the agility.

After a long and strenuous trek through the wastes, Aria finally came to the entrance of the forest. She squeezed between a gap in the trees. She could recognise it: the tall trees with their fresh green leaves; the scent of damp soil; the scent of…ursaring manure. She found herself on familiar ground once again. She hurried around in a panic, searching for zangoose's den. Something else, something more important, had just crossed her mind.

"Mum and Dad!"

* * *

graveler gently patted Aidan's forehead, but he hadn't the heart to tell her that what she was doing was not soothing at all and that it was actually very painful. He took a wheezy breath.

"Did you see that dog thing run across the horizon not too long ago?" he asked feebly, observing the distance to see if he could see it again.

Graveler stared at him; his eyes looked glassy and lifeless, as if her life were melting away into a puddle of nothingness. "Maybe it's the poison making you hallucinate?" She hand-fed him some sleep seeds, since he lacked the energy to even move his arms. "You should get some sleep."

Aidan peered across in disgust at his wound; it was beginning to fester, and took on a greenish-yellow colour. The stench emanating from it was a stench so vile that it could have made a muk vomit. After a while, he felt his eyelids slowly droop.

* * *

Aria could only just see it. Her tiny home. It was only a few metres away from her.

"Mum! Dad!"

She bounced over to her house and eagerly tapped on the door with the ball on her tail. To her surprise, no-one was bothering to answer.

"Mum? Dad?"

Aria tapped at the door once again, but it would still not open. She moved to the side of the house and peered through a gap in the wall. But no-one was there. Assuming that they had only gone out temporarily, and constantly telling herself that to help her overcome her fear, she headed back to the forest for the zangoose.

* * *

She stood proudly in the clearing, legs trembling. Her tail began to glow.

"Come on out, Zangoose!" she squeaked. "We need to talk!"

Nothing happened. Aria crept closer to the gap in the trees, and released electrical sparks from her body. Without her wool, however, her electricity wasn't as strong.

"Come on out!" she repeated. "Are you scared or something?"

The forests remained silent, and not even a rattata skittered through the fallen leaves. Aria pivoted on the spot, keeping her eyes peeled for anything suspicious. Paws pushed her to the floor. Claws were pressed to her throat. The zangoose stood above her

"I ain't scared," he hissed. "Are _you_?"

* * *

**AUTHOR NOTE: The sneaky zangoose Claws was picked up by George !(09053). Have fun with Claws, George! Just don't put him and Novacella in your party at the same time, lol!**


	16. Chapter 16 ,The Curse's Spread

**Author Note: First of all, I want to put out a message to all of you in the US. ****  
I hope you, your family and friends ****are all safe and well, and I hope Hurricane Sandy doesn'****t do too much damage. :) **

* * *

On his way to Oran Forest, Bob heard many a rumour about the curse from other village folk. Apparently, it had spread far and wide across the region.

There had been reports of pokémon collapsing around the vicinities of Quicksand Cave and Crystal Cave from a local delibird, which caused the town to believe that the seviper were the cause of the curse. Most of the village's inhabitants now thought that the zangoose was telling the truth. There hadn't been any more cases of it in the village near Oran Forest, however. Many parents of young pokémon were heading out to track down the seviper themselves; others made sure to never leave their homes.

Local furret remained curled around their baby sentret, only moving when they needed to gather food and, even then, they would take their offspring with them. Kangaskhan were extremely reluctant to let their babies out of their pouches.

All of a sudden, Bob turned to his right. He heard joyful chanting of 'Zangoose! Zangoose!' from not too far away. He curiously headed towards the commotion.

"What's this all about?" he asked, but he received no reply. He spoke in a slightly louder tone. " Hello? Anyone?"

The continuous chanting made anger bubble in his veins.

"WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS HAPPENING?"

His mighty voice boomed through the nearby trees, sending shivers down the pokémon's spines. They all turned to gaze at him, with eyes wide open in fear. A pregnant pause eventually gave birth to the cawing of a Delibird.

"Well, you see, sir, the curse has spread to Crystal Cave- the seviper's main habitat. Maybe they are testing it out on the other pokémon? Maybe they want to take over the area, and then the world?"

"Well-"

"And that is why we admire the zangoose, for telling us exactly that!"

Bob gently pushed the delibird aside to see an oddly-coloured zangoose flexing his muscles, or lack thereof.

"Well, anyway, I can't stay. I've got to go and find my little Aria in the forest."

"Don't worry. I'm sure the zangoose in Oran Forest are keeping her safe there!"

Bob hurried to the forest, stomping daisies flat and almost stepping on a moody group of rattata.

* * *

Aria remained silent. Zangoose continued to pin her to the floor, slowly running the blunt edge of his claw down her stomach.

"Come on, ya dumb ewe! Ya didn't think I was gonna help ya out, did ya? If I told you that them zeviper were causing the curse, then I knew that you and that charmeleon would've gone after 'em and slaughtered 'em! You would've been doin' our job for us."

"Hey!" Yelled the little sheep. "That's not fair!"

"What's not fair? Lettin' two pokémon die to save a whole group of zangoose? You expect me to put a coup'la strangers before my own species? Do ya?"

Aria froze; she could see why zangoose would do such a thing, but she still saw it as being completely unacceptable. He hurt her friend, and he was going to pay dearly for it.

"I don't care about your stupid group! You hurt Aidan! You hurt my friend, just because you were too scared to do your own dirty work!"

"I said…I'm not scared!"

Zangoose raised a claw when a vicious roar ripped through the forests. The floor shook with each of the gargantuan iron creature's steps. He dived at the zangoose, tearing him from his grip on Aria and body-slamming him into the floor. The creature held a firm grip on zangoose's throat, much to its surprise. It could barely breather under Aggron's crushing weight.

"Are you scared now?"


	17. Chapter 17, Aggravated Aggron

"Dad!"

The zangoose flailed its hands around trying to slap the aggron, but his grip was much too tough for him. He spat in the cat-ferret's face. He was in complete disbelief that the species his village was glorifying would be doing something so horrid.

"I don't get why my village trusts you sick imbeciles so much. Pfft. Attacking a poor child. Does it make you feel tough?"

"Why does it matta if I attack a child?" replied Zangoose, completely ignoring his question.

"She's not just _any _child…" Bob tightened his grip on the zangoose's wrists, making him unable to move his hands. He could feel a cold sensation in them. The aggron leaned in. "She's _my_ child."

He whacked the pokémon against a tree repeatedly, and watched in sadistic pleasure as blood leaked from its face.

"Dad! Behind you!"

Bob peered behind him to see a horde of zangoose heading his way, the shiny-coloured leader leading them. Aria, despite being intensely intimidated, got to her tiny feet and unleashed numerous bolts of thunder from her tail, striking a few of the zangoose and slowing them down. Bob charged towards one of them and rammed his iron horns into him, impaling him through the chest. He vigorously shook his head to one side, flinging the carcass of the pokémon to the floor. Aria noticed a frightening flare of fury in her father's eyes. He smashed his metal fists against the floor.

"Come on! Is that all you've got?"

One of the zangoose fired a chilling beam of ice towards the aggron, and it struck his arm. Despite the intense pain the ice was giving him, he punched a tree and shattered the surrounding ice. Aria shot a weak jolt of electricity at the zangoose, making his muscles go stiff.

"Get him, Dad!"

Aria was beginning to panic; the zangoose were far stronger than she had expected, with a peculiar array of moves. A searing flamethrower heated Bob's metal plate on his head until it was red-hot. Doing what he could to ignore the pain, he head-butted the zangoose with red-hot horns, burning his flesh and stabbing him through the heart. He tossed him into the other crowd of zangoose.

"What are you doing, Bob?"

He turned around to see the inhabitants of his village staring at him, with mouths agape.

"Why are you hurting them? They're good-"

" 'Good' my arse!" he bellowed." They attacked my daughter, and anyone that harms my daughter will face the gruesome deaths they deserve! And if you don't agree with me…" Bob waggled a claw, taunting them. "…_come over here and say that to me_."

Aria ran behind her father. "Yeah! Come over and say that to him!" she squeaked.

Bob put his hand to her mouth; he didn't want her words to end up getting her killed.

An angry mob gathered and charged after the Aggron. However, he seemed totally unaffected by the event. He slashed at the incoming zangoose with a mighty dragon claw attack, tearing some of their eyes out and making a large gash in the stomach of the shiny leader. He mercilessly took down each and every village pokémon,-slicing them in half, shattering their skulls with his fists, suffocating them with his tail. However, despite his strength, he eventually collapsed to his knees.

"…Dad?"

Blood leaked from various wounds, and his armour was covered in scratches and dents. One of his iron horns had completely snapped off. The only remaining pokémon was the shiny leader, bearing a smug grin on his face.

"I won't let you touch my Dad!" Aria screamed, dashing towards the zangoose. He exhaled deeply.

"Aria! No!"

Bob pounced over her head, and the shiny leader blasted a bright orange beam of pugilistic power at him. The pulsing rings of energy pummelled the beast, sending him to his knees.

"Dad!"

Despite the apparent exhaustion on his face, the leader zangoose effortlessly kept up his attack. The force of the beam pushed huge dents into the pokémon's armour. He roared, unable to bear the searing pain. Extremely fatigued, the zangoose crashed into the grass, breathing heavily. Aria's head turned to face her father; he was covered in dark patches where he had been somewhat singed by the focus Blast. His armour was dented and melted all over, and blood coated his entire body. The zangoose's power was enough even to penetrate the thick hide of an aggron. She hopped over and stroked his face with her tiny foreleg.

"Aria…run…"

She couldn't bring herself to fight the zangoose; she was much too frightened. Instead, she follower her father's orders, and fled before the zangoose replenished its energy.

* * *

**Author Note: Bob was taken from the GTS by Nikki (39139). **


	18. Chapter 18, Memories Revealed?

She frantically hurtled back towards Crystal Cave; having no idea where her mother was, her only source of protection was Aidan, so she had to find him. A dusty sandstorm brewed across the wastelands. She held the stalks of the pecha berries she had picked up. She endeavoured to keep her mind focused on the path ahead and not on whether the shiny zangoose leader would catch her up, but so many different questions were circling her mind. Was Aidan going to die? Was he already dead? Was he cursed? Was Zangoose telling the truth?

Suddenly, something else began to run alongside her. At first, Aria was about to run the other way, but she was much too awestruck by it. It looked like a very exotic pokémon-a beautiful creature on all fours, with a vulpine form. Its many tails waved like ribbons in the wind, and the breeze flowed through its sublime fur.

"You can stop running. I mean no harm," she said, in a sultry voice.

Aria grinded to a halt, as did the other pokémon, and the other pokémon looked down at her and smiled sweetly.

"Who…what are you?"

Its silver fur glittered brightly in the little light that escaped through gloomy rain clouds. "I am Maude. I am a Ninetales."

Aria was tantalised by her sparkling fur. "You're so shiny!"

"Indeed, I am. Come on. Let's get you back to Aidan."

"How do you know…"

Extremely frightened by the pokémon's strange knowledge of her friend's name, Aria screamed and scurried away from the Ninetales, but she continued to pursue her.

"Leave me alone!" she screeched. She didn't want much to do with anyone apart from Aidan at the moment; she just wanted to be alone. "Don't hurt me!"

"Calm yourself, little one. I am not here to harm you. I am here to help you."

Aria took a step back. "How do I know you're not lying?"

Maude lifted her head. "You see, little one, I have seen many a feud between the zangoose and seviper throughout my life, and I have lived for eight-hundred and forty-two years. It seems that their rivalry is eternal. I would do anything just to put it to an end."

"That doesn't prove anything-"

"Hush, child," Maude whispered, placing her paw on the Mareep's lips. "Let me finish. I see that they have been blaming the curse on each other. _How childish of them_. Well, if you stay with me, then I assure you that neither you nor Aidan will be harmed further by the zangoose."

"Yeah. The zangoose told us that the seviper were causing the curse. They cursed my friend, so we went after them and it didn't do anything-except for almost kill my friend," Aria explained, almost in tears. Was he already dead?

"My poor dear…come along. I will keep you safe."

Maude lifted the Mareep onto her back with the psychic power from her tails, and headed north towards Crystal Cave.

Upon their arrival, Aria jumped off of Maude's back and headed over to Aidan, who lay almost completely still. She placed the pecha berries on the floor and she pierced a hole in its soft flesh with her foot. She squeezed the berry juice gently into Aidan's mouth, praying that she wasn't too late. Maude kept a watchful eye on him.

"Come on, Aidan, wake up!"

"Oh, my…he won't wake up soon, dear. I think you should get some more pecha Berries. There is a forest just to the west of here," Maude suggested, pointing with her paw. "Why don't you go and fetch some more? I will wait right here with him."

He blinked a few times, slowly opening and closing his eyes so that they could adjust better to his surroundings. Strangely, Aria was nowhere to be seen, but a sparkling creature stood right above him...something oddly familiar. It closely resembled the strange being that he kept seeing in his dreams. Was he having another hallucination?

Glaring red eyes struck him. The sight of it shattered the barriers that repressed the memories that had been wallowing about aimlessly in his head since he arrived in the pokémon world.


	19. Chapter 19, Get The Sheep!

The pieces of Aidan's mental puzzle were finally beginning to fit together. However, the image that they created was far from what Aidan had wanted to see. The pokémon stood in front of him was the pokémon that kept appearing in his dreams and his daydreams. It was the pokémon he had been hallucinating so much.

"You…"

The ominous glow in the beast's eyes grew brighter.

"Please calm down, Aidan. You have nothing to worry about."

The image he dreaded appeared in his mind, as clear as the cave's crystals.

"_Dad!"_

The identity of the man was finally clear to him. The memory rewinded and played back, just as clear as it was last time. This time, it didn't appear to him chronologically; all of the little pieces of the event rearranged themselves.

_The beast jumped towards the man, firing embers at the boy's father. He frantically patted the flames out, almost burning his hands._

"What's going on?" Aidan mumbled, constantly looking from one direction to another.

Maude took a step back, watching as she noticed his condition improving slightly.

"Why am I seeing all of this? Is this some sort of a mind trick?"

"_Dad! Don't hurt it! It's looking after its eggs! Look in the cave!"_

_His father glanced into the cave to notice an abundance of eggs, but didn't seem particularly bothered._

"Oh my God…"

"Do not worry, Aidan. These thoughts are merely the result of hallucinations caused by the seviper's venom. That's what frightened that poor bulbasaur, and many others..."

"So, it was the seviper? Zangoose was telling the truth?"

Maude nodded. "You're lucky your friend found you some Pecha berries. Without those pecha berries, you could have…_died_…"

Maude's tails shot out and her fur stood on end. She lifted a paw and turned hear head to see a very large stampede of Pokémon heading in their direction.

"Get the sheep! Get the sheep!" they chanted over and over, like a broken record.

"'Get the sheep'? What on _Earth_ are they talking about? Do they mean the little sheep I just met?"

The mob seemed to be led by a disgruntled-looking cat-like pokémon, one easily recognisable to Aidan.

"It's them!" Aidan growled, lowering onto all fours, tail flame blazing. "I ain't letting them get my friend!" he yelled, completely disregarding the importance of the rest he so desperately needed.

"Really?" Maude asked. "But I thought you only needed her for somewhere to stay." She sat next to him, waving her tails in some sort of a Mexican wave, peering down at the rushing mob. "I thought you were only concerned for your _own_ safety, Aidan. You didn't care what happened to her. I remember you saying something. I think it was something like..." Maude explored her mind for a few seconds.

_" 'I just want to go home, okay?' "_


	20. Chapter 20, Deterring the Angry Mob

Aidan observed the ninetales's oddly-calm expression, in disbelief as to how she knew so much. However, what was more important to him was preventing the crowd from finding Aria. If they did, not only would her mother murder him- his friend would be dead.

"Graveler!" he shouted, waking the rock-type that was taking a short nap next to a tree.

"Aidan! You look brighter-"

"No time for compliments. Look!"

He pointed towards the crowds and she fled towards the cave. Aidan didn't want her to get injured after all of the help she'd given him.

He sighed to himself,and prepared himself for the upcoming battle.

_Remember: Survival is everything here. You fight or you die. You've let down Aria enough; don't let her down again._

"I see."

He decided to ignore, what sounded like, a reply, from the ninetales and concentrated on the oncoming mob of pokémon.

"What are you lot doing here?"

"That sheep you were with when the bulbasaur collapsed…" the zangoose spat, "where is she? Tell me where she is. She and her father killed my clan! We were going to save you all from those seviper and their curse!"

"I doubt that."

"tell us where she is."

"No."

The zangoose began to see red. "I knew it! You two are friends, aren't ya?"

"Too damn right," Aidan stated, approaching the zangoose unflinchingly and poking his nose with his claw, "and you lot ain't gonna lay a _claw _on her."

Aidan felt a strong feeling of extreme power overcoming him once again, as if what was left of his human side was beginning to succumb to the crushing grip of his pokémon side. It was as if it was being dragged into a black hole, and he had to prevent it from hitting the event horizon. He had to stop his primal side from completely engulfing him, but right at that moment in time, he couldn't care less if it did. He _had_ to kill the mob.

Aidan powerfully exhaled a gale of flames at them. A swellow swiftly flew up to avoid the flames and pecked at him repeatedly, but then received a slap from the lizard. All of a sudden, a thunderbolt dropped on it, knocking it out. It lay on the floor, legs twitching, electric crackling.

"I heard them chanting," shouted a familiar voice. "I knew that my Aria was the only sheep in the village, and I'd never let anyone hurt her." She stopped next to Aidan, put her hands on her hips and gazed at the mob, as if she were taunting them. "I'm the sheep's mother, and there is no way I'm letting you kill my child!" She looked over to the charmeleon. "Thanks for protecting my child…Aidan, was it? Is that your name?"

"Yeah," he growled, still angry at the crowd. "Don't worry about that now. Apologise later. Let's get 'em."

Aidan charged at the angry mob, his tail fire burning bright. Maude watched him closely, awaiting the carnage that was about to break out.


	21. Chapter 21, Mass Paralysis

Since his injuries and the seviper poisoning were sure to suppress his full power somewhat, Aidan thrashed about as much as he could, ignoring the extreme pain that it put him through. For some reason, however, he seemed to be getting used to the injures, probably because of the battles he kept getting himself into.

Mary fired an array of signal beam attacks at the oncoming pokémon. They did massive damage to a mightyena, but everyone else kept plodding forward. Aidan performed a Dragon Rage attack that razed the dry wasteland grass and did an unbelievable amount of damage to a shelgon.

"Crap. They're getting closer! Maude! Do something!"

The crowd were beginning to split- some going after Aidan, others going after Mary. Mary seemed to have little trouble holding most of them all.

"You know, the seviper aren't that far away from here! They'll hear you're here and they'll kill you immediately!"

The leader zangoose ignored Aidan and used Crush Claw on him. His mighty claws penetrated Aidan's tail as if it were the surface of water, making blood spurt out from it. Aidan's tail flame singed the Zangoose's face.

All of a sudden, a tiny squeal could be heard from across the wastes; with numerous Pecha berries in her mouth, Aria headed up to the commotion, charging like an angered Rapidash.

"Don't hurt my Mum! You already killed my Dad! I'm not letting you take her too!"

Mary's orbs glowed brightly. "You did WHAT?!"

The skies roared, and wicked thunderbolts rained from the clouds, razing the area and knocking out a couple of the opposing pokémon. Aria joined in, firing little thunderbolts at the mob. However, her attacks weren't doing very much damage, and she couldn't protect her team with Cotton Spore due to her current lack of wool. Mary formed a wall of cotton with her Cotton Guard to give Aria time to hand the pecha berries to Aidan.

"Damn it! How are we supposed to defeat this lot?" Aidan exclaimed, clutching onto his bleeding tail. "If I keep fighting like this, I'm gonna pass out. I've hardly recovered from Seviper. I don't need any more of this."

"So you're just going to give up on us?" Aria replied, sadness in her beady black eyes.

Aidan sighed deeply. He peered over to Maude, who raised her head.

"We don't have to defeat this lot. All we've got to do is go in Crystal Cave, kill all of the seviper, and then the curse will be no more. Then the mob won't have any reasons to get their knickers in a twist," Aidan said promptly, heading towards the cave.

"So you're just gonna run away?" yelled the mightyena. She turned to Aria and her mother. "Your aggron friend killed most of the zangoose! They were the ones that helped us out! They were good pokémon! He and his family deserve to be punished," she snarled.

"Good pokémon? They tricked me and Aidan into doing their dirty work! They're no good at all! They deserved to die!" Aria screamed, making Mary cover her mouth to avoid her daughter getting into any more trouble than she was already in.

* * *

After shoving through many graveler and pulling the floating beldum out of his way, he came to the opening of the seviper's section of the cave. Oddly, he heard no hissing, no talking, nothing. Silence.

"Come on out, you wusses!" he cried, but he received no reply. Gingerly, he entered the cave.

However, what he found had blown his mind. Each and every seviper left alive was lying on the floor as still and as stiff as a scaffolding pole. Their eyes pictured extreme shock. They looked almost traumatised, similar to how the bulbasaur looked.

_They've been cursed._

Aidan had no idea how such a thing could have happened, but then a further fact he'd learnt on his travels only baffled him even more.

_But…weren't they the ones causing the curse? How could they curse themselves?_

* * *

He quickly made his way out of the cave, completely forgetting for a moment that Mary and Aria were in the middle of a heated battle. He needed to be there to support them; no matter how dangerous it was, given that his seviper poisoning hadn't properly healed. He also hoped that Maude was still alive, seeing as she didn't seem to want to get involved in battle, so maybe the mob had gone for her first?

"ARIA!" he cried out, praying that she was still alive. However, he received no response. In fact, he didn't see anything; all he could see was the dust blowing through the wastelands.

"Aria! Mary! Anyone?"

Once he could get a proper look, ne noticed that each and every one of the pokémon that were once fighting were lying in foetal positions, twitching a little. Their eyes, like the seviper's, were dilated and open wide. He hurtled over to Aria, staring into the eyes that were once filled with so much joy and happiness, only to be now filled with fear.

"Aria…not you…"

He could feel tears of boiling water stream down his face. However, his sadness suddenly blossomed into rage.

"I'll find who did this…I'll find them. I'll take them down, and that's a promise. I hope you can hear me, Aria…" he clawed into the dead grass. "I've let you down enough. I PROMISE you, I'll find the cause of the curse, and I'll kill them, no matter what. I'll do it for you. It's only thanks to you that I found my feet here anyway. It's about time that I did you a favour..."

"You're looking for the cause of the curse?"

Aidan slowly turned his head to see Maude standing behind him.

"No duh!" Aidan replied. "What do you think I've been doing for all this time? Looking for somewhere to take a dump?!"

Maude laughed softly. "If it's the curse you're looking for...then you won't have to look very far."


	22. Chapter 22, Realisation

Aidan could barely move, so overcome with confusion that he could barely process everything that was going on. "You…I don't get you. You didn't do anything when we were in battle, and-you told me that the seviper caused the curse, yeah? So why was it that, when I went into the cave, they were all cursed?"

Maude prowled around the charmeleon in a circle. "Do you really not understand all that is happening, Aidan?"

He simply shrugged. "No. All I know is that the Seviper's venom caused all of those weird thoughts about my dad and-wait a minute."

He gazed into the grass, as a thousand ideas entered his mind, all at once.

"They aren't caused by the venom…are they?"

Maude raised her head. Aidan felt a sense of breathlessness overtake him. He mumbled something in a monotone voice:

"They're real memories, aren't they?"

* * *

"_Dad! Don't kill her! What about her babies?"_

"_What about our money?" he snapped, thrashing at the ninetales with his Stanley knife. "Look at those tails! They'll be worth more dosh than Pokéstar Studios, I bet!"_

_The pokémon leapt into the air and attempted to use a flamethrower attack on him, but missed._

"_Dad…"_

_Despites his efforts to prevent his father from killing the pokémon, the ninetales began to growl at him._

"_Agh! It's looking at me!" he yelled, running away from the ninetales that pursued him._

_The boy's father narrowed his eyes and chased after the pokémon. It grabbed onto the pokémon's leg and sliced at its side, making it yelp in pain._

_The little boy was tied between cheering on his father, who was trying to kill a pokémon just for its fur- or between helping him kill the ninetales. Despite the dangers that the boy had to face, he couldn't disobey his father. _

"_I got it!" he shouted, with the ninetales in a painful-looking headlock. Its legs had been tied together by his father. He handed the Stanley knife to him. "Right. Now you can kill it."_

"_I don't want to kill it!"_

_The boy made the mistake of freeing the ninetales. Clearly enraged by the humans that were trying to harm her and her children, she charged at the boy._

"_You get away from my son!"_

_His father leapt in the way, taking the full brunt of the ninetales's attack. Its claws sliced through the man's throat, spilling blood everywhere, but the man slashed at its throat in retaliation._

"_No!"_

_The boy watched as the man hit the floor, the Stanley knife flying out of his hand. He ambled over to his father, smoothing his face. "Daddy…are you gonna be okay?"_

_The man's eyes closed gently, and the little boy cried streams of tears. He listened close to the barely- audible mumbles that escaped his lips._

"_Remember to be strong, son."_

_The boy grabbed the knife. All his ideas of cruelty towards the mother ninetales had died with his father._

"_You hurt my dad!" he squealed, slicing off the Ninetales who was lying weakly on the ground. "So, I'm taking your tail like he wanted!"_

* * *

Aidan looked behind the ninetales. One of its tails was naught but a hairless stub.

"You lied to me."

Maude giggled into her paw. "About what, sweetie?"

"Don't 'sweetie' me! All of this is your fault, isn't it? My thoughts aren't anything to do with the seviper venom. They're my repressed memories, aren't they? You killed my dad."

"Whatever happened to 'Don't hurt pokémon, it's cruel', Aidan? Did you forget about that? Or were you just too caught up in your pokémon battles to realise just how much of a dirty_ hypocrite_ you were?"

"I don't care," he snapped. "_You killed my d__ad_."

Maude whipped her tuft of hair from her face. "I see that you haven't heard about the curse."

Aidan narrowed his eyes, his tail fire blazing like a thousand suns. "You've been going on about the curse for long enough. I think I know what you're talking about."

"You seem confused. Let me explain. I decided to wait until you were older, old enough to understand why all of this would happen. Back then, you wouldn't have known of your wrongdoings. But, you are fifteen now. I assume that you are mature enough to understand now…although, judging by what I have seen, I am unsure."

"Cut the crap!" Aidan shouted. "Get to the point!"

"Okay, okay. Calm yourself. Have you ever heard of the Curse of Ninetales?"

Aidan gasped. "I knew-"

"SILENCE!" Maude roared. "I'm sure you've heard of the tale before. However, I shall not waste my breath by telling you it all.

In short, it involves a human who was foolish enough to touch a tail. That human was subject to a 1,000-year curse. We made a prediction that the human would one day be reborn as a Pokémon, and when the human became a pokémon, the world's balance would be upset."

Aidan observed his surroundings; ninetales was right. It seemed that the parts of the world he had visited had become subject to the odd curse.

"So, why did you do it?" Aidan growled. "Why did you curse the pokémon ? They haven't done anything."

"Can you blame me for what I have done? I killed your father to protect my young."

"I sliced off your tail to avenge my dad," Aidan retorted.

Maude's eyes glowed a sinister red colour. "You see, it is not I that is causing the curse."

Maude crept up to him, standing tall and authoritative.

"Well, who is it then? Arceus?"

"It is _you_, Aidan Pyreman."


	23. Chapter 23, It's Either You or Her

He felt his breathing almost cease completely. He was reluctant to believe Maude, however.

"How do I know that's true?"

"Because you are a human who has become a Pokémon, and now, thanks to you, the world's balance has been upset. Everywhere you have been, the curse has followed. I am afraid you'll just have to live with the guilt that the evidence provides."

He crashed down onto his knees. The curse that he had spent so long pursuing was not even a step away from him. The curse that had spread around the land like wildfire, the curse that had most likely caused hardship and fear for many families and friends, and to Aria, was all thanks to _him_.

"Why would you do such a thing? Why not kill me, rather than endanger this world?" Aidan muttered, his anger spiralling into hopelessness.

Maude was oblivious to his feelings and kicked dry dirt on him with her hind legs, continuing to pace around the area as she spoke. "If I had killed you, then you would have never learnt your lesson. I knew that you had somewhat of a selfless streak, so you would have wanted the world to do better without you, had you known at the time what would have happened. As much as I wanted you dead, I would have preferred to face the consequences. The only way to fix the upset balance…is to get rid of you."

Aidan slammed a paw on the ground and shot a chilling glower at Maude.

"…Which is what I'll have to do to you, I'm afraid."

"What?"

"Put it this way, Aidan…if you let me kill you, your friend will be safe. Your choice. Either you die and she lives…_or vice-versa_."

_I can't let anything happen to her!_

Aidan's attention turned to the traumatised little sheep, lying perfectly still on the floor. If he were to live, then that would be how her, and the rest of the inhabitants of the Pokémon world, would spend the rest of the lives in catatonia.

"Alright, fine." Aidan relaxed his body. "Come over here and kill me."

Maude cackled, her eyes a blazing red. "How _weak _of you."

She raised her head, preparing an array of tiny, purple orbs of psychic energy. She released them, and they honed in on Aidan and buffeted him into the dry soil. As he tried to get back to his feet, she hurled balls of energy at him. Despite the attack rarely ever doing much damage to him, it seemed that Maude's strength far exceeded any of the other Pokémon he'd fought. After the burning sensation calmed down, Aidan heaved himself onto his feet. He attempted an attack different to what he knew he could use so far. He lowered onto all fours and blasted a pulse of azure energy at the Ninetales, making her lose her footing slightly. She lifted a paw and turned her head sideways, scowling at the Charmeleon that stood before her.

"I said you could kill me," Aidan said, "but I didn't say I would make it easy."

* * *

**AUTHOR NOTE: Maude has been claimed, but probably not by a reader seeing as the Poke Ball wasn't attached to it. :)**


	24. Chapter 24, Raging Fire

Aidan's claws swiped across Maude's face, leaving a deep triple scratch that bled rather heavily. She wiped it vigorously from her face and lowered her head, snarling towards the fire lizard. She reared and breathed violet beams of light at Aidan. They struck his arm, paralysing it for a few seconds. Maude dashed towards him and tackled him to the floor. With both of her front paws on his chest, she repeatedly snapped at him, almost sinking her fangs into Aidan's flesh. He crunched down on her leg, making her wail in pain, and then tossed her to the floor.

"Nice try."

Aidan attempted a punch, but Maude's tails stuck out on end, each of them radiating with psychic power. She blasted beams out of them as if they were cannons, three of which hit the Charmeleon in the stomach.

"Your father would be ashamed, Aidan…"

Aidan's eyes bulged wildly. He couldn't think of what other moves to use; it seemed that his fire attacks would do little to take Maude down, yet she seemed to be using a variety of different attacks, some of them that he couldn't even recognise. What kind of attack was the extension of the tails, and the power that imbued them? Was that what was granting the spiteful Ninetales her power?

He honed his claws on a nearby rock and slashed at the Ninetales, aiming for her tails. She coiled four of her tails around each of Aidan's limbs. She tightened her grip, and he could feel his feet and paws get colder. After a while, they felt as stiff as steel.

"If you keep this up, I'll coil the next one around your throat."

Maude slammed him to the ground, but he grabbed onto her tail with his piercing fangs and stripped some of fur and skin straight from the bone. She roared, and her body became limp for a second.

"What's wrong, Maude?" Aidan asked, his voice sounding jittery, as if his anger was becoming too much for him. "_Did it hurt_?"

Maude was almost beginning to fail to understand how a human was able to put up with so much damage.

All of a sudden, Aidan was struck with a plausible idea but, as to whether it was true or not, he had no idea.

_Maybe Ninetales's tails are the source of her power? And, maybe…if I get rid of sources of power…the curse might be lifted!_

Maude used a further Psyshock attack, firing little balls of psychic energy at him again. He ducked most of them, but a couple collided with his horn, giving it a burning feeling. He aimed for her other tail, swiftly avoiding being strangled in the other tails. He bit one side of the tail with his fangs and stripped it all the way up, tearing the skin from another one of her tails. Once again, Maude found it difficult to endure the agony that he'd caused her. She was covered head-to-toe in blood, and two of her tails were reduced to nothing but bone.

"I'm not letting _you_ let _them_die!"

Aidan wiped the blood from his hands and feet and shook his paws to encourage some blood flow into them; they still felt stiff from where Maude had almost completely cut off the circulation to them. He charged for her once again, a fearsome grimace covering his face. With a weak glare, Maude watched in delight.

His tail fire was beginning to grow smaller.


	25. Chapter 25, Flash Fire Pyre

"Aidan. Look behind you. Look at your tail. You grow weak."

"I don't care!" he screeched, pouncing with his mouth agape. Maude pranced out of the way and Aidan skidded across the floor, the bottom half of his mouth scooping up mud and dust like a spade. He quickly observed the flame on his tail; she was right. He was becoming somewhat weaker.

Maude leapt gracefully into the air. When she landed, she stomped on him with her front paws and pushed him into the dry ground.

"Come on, Aidan. Try harder."

Aidan attempted to let out a dragon pulse, but he couldn't let one escape his throat whilst Maude's foot was pressed down so powerfully on it. He picked up is paw and stabbed his claws into the top of her foot. She yelped and raised it involuntarily, allowing Aidan to push her to one side and escape her grip. She swung her tail across his tail flame to gain its fiery power, so it would increase the power of her own fire attacks. She used the flame on the end of that tail to light the others, setting them ablaze.

Once again, she performed an energy ball attack, but the fiery power now imbued in her tails combined with it to create a flaming orb of burning energy. She flung it at the Charmeleon and it exploded into orange light. Despite his resistance to fire, Maude's increased power had done much to make the attack more powerful. Even for a charmeleon, Maude's fire attack was too hot to handle. Once the flames had died down, Maude leapt towards him, planning to bash him with her burning tails. He swiftly side-stepped to avoid it, and retaliated with a powerful slash across her stomach. She bit his hand to prevent his claws from digging into her flesh any further.

Maude cracked her bony tails like whips into Aidan's back, smashing him into the soil. She went to hit him again whilst he was down, but he grabbed onto it, flipping off of her tail and onto her back. He scraped the skin and fur from yet another two tails, leaving four tails. Maude was clearly beginning to weaken, as he steps became lighter and her tails drooped to the floor.

"Look behind you. Look at your tails. You grow weak," Aidan mimicked, imitating Maude's soft and sophisticated voice. He chuckled. "Looks like you ain't as strong as you make out." Aidan approached her and placed his foot on her neck. Assuming that he was winning the battle, Aidan allowed himself to be a little calmer. "Can you really blame me for what I did? My father died because of you, and I was only small. Did you really expect me to think about what I was doing?"

Maude coughed up little plumes of smoke. "Excuses."

"I'd bet that, if you were in my situation, you would've killed the Pokémon that murdered your father."

"My father was a disgusting wretch, much like yours."

Aidan kicked Maude in the face. "You shut your mouth about my dad!"

Suddenly, he lost his cool again. Maude noticed a primal flash in his eyes, and he attempted to slash Maude's throat open. She pushed him back with her paw and tangled a bony tail around his throat. He desperately tried to escape the powerful coil of her tail, but as his breath escaped his lungs, he was losing the power to remove himself from the grip.

"Go on," Maude taunted. "Give up."

Aidan thought for a while about what he could do. He couldn't let himself die right now; he didn't know if it was certainly his death that would save his friends. Maude's ruby-esque eyes probed into his own. He couldn't help but realise from the fire orb attack that Maude must have possessed the special ability of Flash Fire- the ability to use the fire attack of an opponent to strengthen her own fire powers. If he pummelled her with fire attacks, her attacks would become so strong that they would do massive damage even to one of her own type. With her power slowly being drained from her by the stripping of her powers…

Aidan hacked powerfully at the bones in the tail, disconnecting them from each other, and freed himself from Maude's grip. He breathed in and breathed ribbons of orange flames at Maude. They wrapped around her and she drew in their power, allowing herself to take on a bright orange glow.

She pranced towards him and blasted a fiery beam at him. But, to her disbelief, Aidan had leapt out of the way of her attack. She couldn't believe how fast he'd reacted to such a swift attack. Did he have this planned in advance?

"Dodging won't do you any good. Stop being such a baby and retaliate!" she snapped.

A vast daimonji-like shape burned viciously, but it stretched out much more than she had expected it to. It seemed that she had misjudged her power. She could feel something tearing away at her body- the flames. They had become so powerful that, since her own powers had become much too weak to withstand it, her own attacks had affected herself.

Aidan sniffed the air, breathing in the burning flesh as if it were a cake being baked in the oven. He put his paw to his chin, as if thinking. "It smells like something's burning…" He brought his tail around and sniffed the end. "Is it my tail?

Maude screeched shrilly as the flames ate at her skin. Aidan peered over to her.

"Actually…I think it might be you, Maude."

Aidan's sarcasm burned at Maude more than the flames. She wanted to retort, but the only noises she could let escape her mouth was the harsh screaming from the extreme pain of the fire. Eventually, she gave up trying to fight the flames. Maude's eyes were fixed on Aidan. One side of his mouth rose into a sneaky grin, and the raging fire was reflected off of his eyes. He waved goodbye. He giggled in his throat.

"See ya."


	26. Chapter 26, Rising

Aidan broke down to his knees, gritting his teeth to ease the pain and wiping the blood from his wounds. He slowly turned to his head; the paralysis was still in effect. Despite his condition, he lifted himself to his feet and hobbled over to Aria. He knelt down next to her, lying his paw on her side.

"Come on, Aria…"

The tiny sheep still remained as still as a post.

_Maybe the curse is still in effect…_

He had no other choice. The only thing he could do to save his friends , and the rest of the Pokémon world, was to take his own life. Bravely, yet reluctantly, he brought his claws up to his throat and gently placed them on the soft flesh…

"Aidan! What are you doing?"

The words echoed in his ears for a short while. It was squeaky, curious and sounded very feminine. He couldn't believe it; the voice he had awaited was finally speaking to him.

"Aria…"

He turned around and ran towards the voice, wrapping the sheep in a warm embrace. "Thank God you're alive."

"I felt really odd, Aidan- wait! You're hurt!"

"Aria, it's fine. Don't worry," he said softly.

She observed the many cuts and wounds he'd sustained in battle, and then her attention turned to the huge fire.

"What's that?"

"It's the leftovers of that bitch Maude," Aidan growled. "It's okay now. She's gone."

Aria heard the soft calls of her mother, who had dissolved into tears. Mary waddled up to her and picked her up, spinning her around in circles. Aidan felt a tear come to his eye as he watched the tiny smile on Aria's lips, and listened to her carefree laughter.

"Oh my Gosh!" they gasped, in awe at the large blaze.

"Everyone, don't worry about the fire, alright? Anyway, everyone will be fine. The curse is gone. Maude is gone," he explained. The other pokémon gazed at him for a while, and then gave Aidan their thanks.

"Sorry about all of the accusations, Charmeleon."

"Thank you so much for everything you've done for my daughter, Aidan…" Mary said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Thanks for everything you two did for me. If it weren't for you two, I'd be dead by now," Aidan chuckled.

Aria tapped her feet on the ground impatiently. "Do you want to live with me and my mum?"

Both Aidan and Mary exchanged confused looks. "Seriously? You haven't even asked her yet," Aidan laughed.

"Go on, it'll be fun! Can he, Mum? Can he?"

Aria jumped up and down. Her tail light glowed brightly. All of a sudden, Aidan felt a fizzing feeling in his body. He noticed that yellow glowing orbs seemed to be surrounding him. He blinked a couple of times, not believing his surroundings; he had entered the Pokémon world thanks to a curse lay on him by a Ninetales, and finally, now that the curse has been broken, he was about to be transported back home.

"What's going on?"

"Aria…" Aidan took a breath. "I think I have to go back to the human world now. It's been fun, but the curse is gone now, so...I have to go too. I have to restore the balance, Aria. The legend says that the balance of the word is upset when the human becomes a Pokémon. Now that I'm going back, everything will be back to normal. I have to go, Aria. It's the only way you and your Pokémon friends will ever return to your normal lives."

Aria began to cry. "But…I'll never see you again. And you were my only friend…We won't be friends anymore…"

Aidan laid his paw on Aria's shoulder. "Even though it's unlikely we'll ever meet again, we'll always be friends, Aria. Don't worry about that, okay?"

The orbs began to grow larger.

"Aidan! Don't go!"

"I have to. But don't worry, because I'm sure that you'll never forget about me, and I won't forget about you."

Aidan was unsure of whether or not he'd remember Aria once he became human again, but he decided to tell her that so he would to prevent her from getting even more upset than she already was.

"Goodbye, Aria."

The charmeleon materialised into yellow light and floated gently towards the sky. Aria jumped as high as she could, trying to catch it.

"No!" she yelled, breaking to the floor in tears. Mary hugged her tightly.

"Aria, don't be too upset. You'll always have the memories that you too shared, right?"

Aria stared into the yellow light again, wishing she could have her friend back for even a few more minutes. "Yeah…"

She and her mother looked up into the skies, watching the stars twinkle. They pondered about what life must have been like in the human world, and they wished to Arceus that Aidan would have a safe journey back home.

* * *

Aidan felt as if he were nothing, just a soul wafting through the air and up into a dark void. He wondered what would await him when he returned to the human world. Would his mother yell at him for not doing the chores? Or would his sister bug him to help her train her minun? Either way, he felt excited to finally see his real family again. He couldn't wait to return to home-sweet-home once again.

* * *

**AUTHOR NOTE: Thank you so much for reading the story! I appreciate it, and I hope you enjoyed the read!**

**Self Evaluation of PMD: TUC**

**Now that I look back on this story, I notice that there is much that could have been improved. A reader said to me that more development of the Zangoose and Seviper arc, and of the characters, would have been a lot better, and I definitely agree with that entirely. I also looked back on the ending and realised that Maude being overcome by an attack she should be resistant to probably wasn't as good an ending, or as brutal a battle, as people were hoping for. The intention was to show the extreme intensity of Aidan's fire attack, but now, I don't see it as being effective. I may consider re-writing the fight chapter, but part of me is telling me to just leave it as is, rather than change the plot of an old story. I am unsure. :) Aria also seemed rather irrelevant, and I feel her character could have had some more personality quirks or flaws, or more backstory behind her.**

**Personally, I preferred that Aidan and Aria shared a platonic relationship, since I normally see male-female platonic relationships as being closer and more special in stories. Then again, since Aria was portrayed as being quite a bit younger than Aidan, that wouldn't have been a brilliant subplot anyway. :P I enjoyed writing Aidan's character as he was a lot different to most of the characters that I wrote, only I do now wish I had developed him some more. **

**Thank you for reading. :)**


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